Woodward Lounge Chairs

Woodard Furniture Company’s diverse offerings have included everything from pine caskets to premium patio and garden furniture over the years.

Lyman E. Woodward founded the family business Woodard Brothers (he dropped the second w for his venture’s name), later Woodard Furniture Co., in Owosso, Michigan, in 1866. Woodard Furniture produced wood furniture such as birch and oak bedroom pieces, window and door blinds and even pine caskets. Demand for the latter increased during the spread of the Spanish flu in America, and Woodard’s casket business — a new company called Owosso Casket Company — thrived, becoming the largest casket manufacturer in the world throughout the 1920s. Two U.S. presidents, William McKinley and Benjamin Harrison, were buried in Owosso caskets.

On the furniture side, Lyman’s son Lee Woodard spun off his own business as Lee L. Woodard and Sons, opening a shop with his sons, Joseph, Lyman II and Russell Woodard. During the 1930s, the new company explored the use of metal in furniture-making and introduced a wrought-iron set of patio dining furniture featuring ornate grillwork inspired by French design called Orleans in 1940. The line became a best seller and kick-started the company’s international reputation as a patio-furniture maker, even as the Woodard factory subsequently shifted toward supporting the wartime efforts in manufacturing parts for trucks and military equipment. After World War II, the business returned to making furniture. Over the years, Woodard and Sons would go on to master metallurgy in furniture making, developing expertise in wrought iron, cast aluminum and tubular aluminum for both indoor and outdoor pieces. In colder regions, wrought iron, which can be left outdoors all year round, was the material of choice in outdoor furniture designs for the Atomic Age, and vintage Woodard outdoor furniture is widely coveted by collectors today.

While the business started with more traditional styles of furnishings, the company would go on to embrace mid-century modernism. In fact, one of Woodard’s most famous pieces is 1956’s Sculptura chair, variously credited over the years to Russell and/or Joseph. The Sculptura was reportedly the first sculpted chair made without molds. Not unlike Harry Bertoia’s elegant steel-wire Side chair (also a mid-century darling) in its undulating form, the Sculptura chair, which is composed entirely of enameled woven wrought-iron wire, bears similarity to Eero Saarinen’s Womb chair for Knoll and Charles and Ray Eames’s DAX chair. The beloved Woodard chair was added to the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s permanent collection in 1994.

While the Woodard business is no longer in family hands, the company continues to produce fine patio furniture today and even reintroduced the Sculptura chair in 2015 as nostalgia for mid-century modernism gained steam again. 

On 1stDibs, find vintage Russell Woodard lounge chairs, dining chairs and patio furniture today.

While this specific seating is known to all for its comfort and familiar form, the history of how your favorite antique or vintage lounge chair came to be is slightly more ambiguous.

Although there are rare armchairs dating back as far as the 17th century, some believe that the origins of the first official “lounge chair” are tied to Hungarian modernist designer-architect Marcel Breuer. Sure, Breuer wasn’t exactly reinventing the wheel when he introduced the Wassily lounge chair in 1925, but his seat was indeed revolutionary for its integration of bent tubular steel.

Officially, a lounge chair is simply defined as a “comfortable armchair,” which allows for the shape and material of the furnishings to be extremely diverse. Whether or not chaise longues make the cut for this category is a matter of frequent debate.

The Eames lounge chair, on the other hand, has come to define somewhat of a universal perception of what a lounge chair can be. Introduced in 1956, the Eames lounger (and its partner in cozy, the ottoman) quickly became staples in television shows, prestigious office buildings and sumptuous living rooms. Venerable American mid-century modern designers Charles and Ray Eames intended for it to be the peak of luxury, which they knew meant taking furniture to the next level of style and comfort. Their chair inspired many modern interpretations of the lounge — as well as numerous copies.

On 1stDibs, find a broad range of unique lounge chairs that includes everything from antique Victorian-era seating to vintage mid-century modern lounge chairs by craftspersons such as Hans Wegner to contemporary choices from today’s innovative designers.